Bathroom demolition

Last night I worked on scraping moldy paint off the walls in the basement while Kevin tore apart the bathroom upstairs. I mostly just wanted to stay out of his way while he worked, since I’m not that great at tearing down plaster and drywall. Plus, scraping paint is a surprisingly gratifying job. It’s that detail-oriented kind of work that people who get perverse pleasure out of picking zits would enjoy.

Anyway, he basically finished gutting the room, other than getting the tub out and replacing the subflooring. It was previously just plywood with carpeting glued on top, which means it was moist a lot, and I’m surprised it didn’t just rot through. We’ll be putting concrete board down before we lay the hex tiles so that we don’t have to worry about moisture issues affecting the subflooring.

Here’s the cool stuff:

After removal of the toilet, sink, and medicine cabinetKevin getting ready to fuck shit upThe carpeting is GONE!Who wants to help us haul this outside?Down to studs

This bathroom has gone through a lot over the years. Kevin tore out the masonite paneling that his father had installed as the shower walls, to find rotting plywood behind it. Behind that was plaster that had been slathered over drywall with a sheet of chickenwire on it, presumably to make it more sturdy. He could tell that it had previously been tiled, too.

We're replacing the drywall with greenboard all the way up to the ceilingThis was the hard part, right? RIGHT?Who else in the world can say they've got Galaga in their laundry room?

And those basement walls are most definitely bulging, not just cracked. From reading online, it sounds like the step cracks indicate that they’re being pushed in due to hydrostatic pressure, which makes sense because it seems as though the water table in Iowa City has changed. Do you have any suggestions as to who to go to for getting this repaired?